Need to tart up your office?

I have just the thing - a used desk, currently failing to meet its ebay reserve of $25,000:

According to the blurb, "The one-of-a kind desks were designed by Gensler Architects and fabricated by Brochstein’s, one of the nation’s premiere manufacturers of custom architectural furniture. According to Brochstein’s, the desks, with an elegant Makore Pommelle veneer, would cost well into five-figures to replicate today".

I should imagine that Liberace had a very soft seat indeed given his lifestyle.

Where is Verity ? I am looking forward to taking advantage of her new vulnerability. Mind you I blubbed when I visited Blenheim , they play Churchill`s wartime speeches with sirens and footage and ..its all to much.

In the comic strip Asterix, the original French version of the adventure Asterix in Belgium quotes Brel. When Asterix, Obelix and Chief Vitalstatistix walk through the flat Belgian landscape, the Belgian chieftain says that "Dans ce plat pays qui est le mien, nous avons des oppidums pour uniques montagnes." ("In my flat country the only mountains we have are 'oppidums'". This is a reference to Brel's song "Le Plat Pays" (The Flat Country) in which he sings that in his flat country, churches are the only mountains.

Hmmm I `m not feeling the love so far . Explain Verity, I `m sorry for being facetious . What is it about this chap that turns you into a blancmange of wobble lipped emotion ? Croydonian is not a gentleman..and I can prove that with exmaples , so there is no point in relying on him.

Now this gives me a wonderful opportunity to side from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Jacques Brel is to my mind one of the greatest song writers of the 20th century, and as I have noted before, beginners might like to start on the methadone of the English language cover versions by Scott Walker 'Sings Jacques Brel'. This has, inter alia, 'Amsterdam', 'My Death', the blood chilling 'Next' and 'If you go away'. All highly impressive.

However, as an indicator of how things get lost in translation, 'Ne me quitte pas Il faut oublierTout peut s'oublier Qui s'enfuit déjà Oublier le temps Des malentendus'is rendered in English as 'If you go away on this summer day, Then you might as well take the sun away;All the birds that flew in the summer sky, When our love was new and our hearts were high'. Not quite the same.

Some wag once suggested that the German magazine 'Tempo' was a better reason for learning German than Goethe, and perhaps I might argue that Brel is a more compelling reason to master French than Proust.

And so to the ridiculous: the Liberace museum is to be found in a Vegas mall, and the Rhinestoned one had a piano in *every* room of his house. Oh dear.

England: Boom Bang Bang Sweden : Bang Clap BoomGreece : Oo ooo bang boomFrance :"The Little bird who flies to the Sun is like our love in its soaring but also in its delicacy and and fragility . So farewell my love for I can be your morning bird no longer and must cry alone this Spring morning like the first morning of our love "

Croydonian, well, I recovered my equilibrium during the day and I agree about the English version of Ne me quitte pas. It is absolute Bert Bacharat. It ought to have been sung by wossname, Dionne Warwicke, and probably was.

I agree Brel was one of the greatest song writers of the last century (although, whoaahh, maybe not, given Cole Porter and Rogers and Hammerstein,Jules Steyne et tous les autres. But he was good!) And he sang his own songs, and he had a powerful voice and a powerful presence, and the singing in Flemish didn't hurt. (How many times can you say that in life?)

Newmania wrote: France :"The Little bird who flies to the Sun is like our love in its soaring but also in its delicacy and and fragility . So farewell my love for I can be your morning bird no longer and must cry alone this Spring morning like the first morning of our love " That was funny!

But there is just something about Jacques Brel. He was unique.

Aaaaiiiii! It's getting chilly here! Can you believe I live so close to the equator and have had to put on a cardigan? It must be all this global warming! Paging Al Gore. Paging Al Gore. Mr Darwin and his committee would like a word with you.